Time to think
by Naelea
Summary: A SSHG lovestory compliant with Deathly Hallows, save for the last chapter. When Hermione realises what Severus Snape has done for their side, she decides to take action. He, however, isn't pleased with her 'Gryffindor' meddling.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: My story, but definitely not my characters or settings... Too bad

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As they were descending the staircase leading from the Headmaster's office, Harry was called upon by a familiar voice.

"I thought I might find the three of you here... The last few days, months even, must have been exhausting for all of you, especially you Harry, but I'm afraid I have to ask you to make one more decision before you will be able to retire."

"Is there anything wrong professor?" Hermione sounded worried.

"No dear, just some arrangements that need to be dealt with. And you may call me Minerva, considering the circumstances, I believe it is only appropriate that we leave those formalities belonging to the past behind us."

"What's the matter then, prof- euh Minerva?" Harry asked.

"As you probably will be aware of, there were many casualties in this war, on both sides. While it is obvious that the loved ones we have lost will be given proper respect, I did not want to make a decision concerning the fallen Death Eaters and their leader, without considering your word in that matter." McGonnagal looked troubled, it was easy to see that even though she loathed everything Voldemort and his followers stood for, she still was a noble Gryffindor and could not just rid herself of their bodies. In offering Harry a choice, she hoped to be confirmed in her own convictions.

"I guess we will have to bury them," Harry said "but not on Hogwarts' grounds, Dumbledore wouldn't have approved of it. And I don't think Voldemort should be burried among his followers either. There's still a difference between him and his Death Eaters, I can imagine that not all of them were as horrible as their leader." Harry thought of the Malfoys and how Narcissa had saved him by not letting Voldemort know he was still alive. And Snape, he was after all a Death Eater, but it had turned out that that didn't necessarily meant that he was one of Voldemort's followers.

This reminded him of Snape: did they find his body already? And if they did, would it be lying with the other Death Eaters in the separate chambers for the fallen enemies? He had after all spoken of his former professor's innocence during his fight with Voldemort, but then again, why would anybody believe him or mind, even if they did believe? They hadn't seen what he saw earlier in the pensieve.

"Professor, did they find Snape's body? Professor Snape, I mean?" Harry was amazed how Hermione seemed to voice the connections his brains had only just made.

"Yes dear, I am afraid however that he has been laid to rest among the other Death Eaters, for now at least, but we will see to it that he gets a proper burial." McGonnagal's voice sounded cold and distant, it was clear that she didn't know what to think of the revelations Harry had made earlier, after all, there was no proof of his innocence. Harry might have had the same foolish trust in Snape that had caused Dumbledore his life.

"Anyway, all of this has been far more a burden than anybody should bare, especially three youngsters such as yourselves. I believe you need some rest dears. There are warm comfortable beds awaiting you in the Hospital wing. I am afraid that Gryffindor tower is out of order for now..." And with that McGonnagal disappeared, no doubt to arrange what she had just agreed on with Harry.

"She's right mate, we haven't had any sleep since we've left Shell cottage, let's just get to bed Harry."

Even the walk to the Hospital wing seemed too much for them and when they finally arrived, Harry nearly collapsed onto the first bed he came across. Ron and Hermione quickly found two free beds nearby and soon the sound of Ron's snoring filled the room. Hermione however couldn't sleep, something was troubling her. She heard what Harry had said about Snape earlier and the conversation with McGonnagal had triggered her brain, so she found her head full of questions. Hermione, being the curious know-it-all that Snape had always called her, needed those questions answered before she could give in to the exhaustion that was overcoming her. Silently she slipped out of her bed, without wanting to wake them. They needed their sleep after all and it wasn't as if she needed her friends help to do what she was about to do.

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Ten minutes later Hermione found herself in the Headmaster's office again. Dumbledore's portret was snoring gently; every time he exhaled, his silvery beard rippled across his chest, it was quite the peaceful sight. It didn't take her long to find what she was looking for, Harry had left the pensieve standing on top of a small table behind the large wooden desk that stood in the centre of the office. Just as she expected, its silvery contents were still there and she had no doubt that it were still the memories of Snape that Harry had seen the previous night. She was feeling a bit guilty about sneaking of and doing this without telling. After al it was Harry to whom Snape had said his dying words and she could imagine that he didn't want just anybody to see what he had wanted to show him. But still, Harry would have told them anyway and she to had been there when he was lying there alone in the Shrieking shack, bleeding to death. So she took a deep breath and plunged into the memories that belonged to her old Potions Master.

Several minutes afterwards Hermione resurfaced. She just stood there for five whole minutes, slightly shaking, in the middle of the deserted office that she had seen inside the pensieve. To hear Harry telling that Snape was innocent was one thing, but now that she had seen everything this man had been through and had thought of the courage it must have taken to continue, right until the end, tears slowly begin trickling down her face.

Mostly she felt guilty. How could she have missed it? He had always protected them, even in their first year. If only they would have known about Dumbledore, then he could have been saved, they could have warned him. Once the battle begun, he wouldn't have to spy for them any more and he would have never had to meet with Voldemort. He'd be alive and he would be free, after all those years, she thought he deserved it, very much. Somehow, even though Voldemort was defeated and Hogwarts was saved, she felt like she had failed. And failure was something Hermione Granger could not stand.

But the fact of the matter was that he was dead, she had seen him die and so there was nothing she could do to bring him back. Accepting the irreversibility of what had happened, Hermione decided that if she could not save him, that she would at least see that he would be honoured for his actions, for his sacrifice.

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Suddenly Hermione realised what McGonnagal said earlier, about his body lying among the Death Eaters. She decided that he at least deserved to be put in the room with the other victims. Hermione made her way to the great hall. Apparently Harry and Ron weren't the only ones needing to sleep after what had happened earlier; only a few ministry officials were still there and fortunately they didn't say anything about Hermione's presence, perhaps they didn't care. She quickly and as unobtrusively as possible, strolled to the door at the back of the hall, leading to the room where the bodies had been put. Drawing a deep breath, Hermione gathered all her courage and entered.

It was not a pretty sight. Bodies were everywhere, haphazardly strewn around the floor. The air was so thick with the coppery smell of blood that it was almost tangible. But she wasn't going to back down now._Gryffindor courage, Hermione. You can do this, just remember why you're here._ Carefully making her way through the room, she looked for Professor Snape's body. The atmosphere of the place made it nearly impossible for her to focus and after five minutes she still hadn't spotted him. Finally she saw him, on the opposite side of where she was standing, she could tell it was him by the raven black and greasy hair. Shuddering from the sight of his dead body she slowly began to walk towards him.

She lifted the body lying on top of his with a muttered Mobilicorpus. Long black hair fell down and revealed a face; it was Bellatrix Lestrange. Just as she was putting her down next to Snape, she saw something silvery fall from in between the folds of Bellatrix' robes. It appeared to be attached to a silver chain around the woman's neck. Hermione lowered the body and decided to examine what it was that had attracted her attention. Warily she stepped closer, even dead Bellatrix looked as mad and frightening as Hermione could remember her. Trying hard to stop trembling, she tentatively reached for the chain. A small gasp of surprise broke the silence of the room. It was a Time-turner. _Bellatrix must have snatched it from the ministry stocks when she was in the department of mysteries two years ago_, Hermione surmised.

She glanced at the body that she had revealed; Snape's eyes seemed even more dark now that he was dead, a dull black, very different from the obsidian ones she remembered. And then it struck her; maybe what had happened to him wasn't that irreversible after all...

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Feel free to review! I'll take it into consideration.

And if there are people willing to be my beta, that would be wonderful.

Next up: how a timeturner can change Snape's life... (and I know it can't reverse death, but technically, in DH we are not one hundred procent certain that he is dead when they leave the shrieking shack, he's not killed by a killing curse, so his death doesn't occur immediately. I know it's a long shot, but it's probably still the best one I've got)


	2. Chapter 2

_Right, I can fix this, I just know I can. I only need to gather all the facts and find a way to work around them. Nothing more complicated than any logical puzzle; there's always a way out. First I need to get out of here, this place is making me ill._

Since she had been using a Time Turner during her entire third year, Hermione understood the workings of time very well and even more so the consequences of tampering with it. Tampering with time is always a disaster for those involved, but this time things were more serious than ever. One wrong decision and Voldemort could win this war. Was she willing to take that risk?

_I'm going to do this, after all, we did see Voldemort die, there can't possibly be a way around that, now can there?_

_Allright, facts._

_I can only go back in time for a day, so I will need to find an answer within six hours, more or less._

_We saw Snape getting bitten, we saw him collapse and I think we saw his dying breath... O god, I must have failed!_

_His body was lying in the room next door and he appeared to be dead. Definitely failed..._

_I need to find a way to make Snape die and not be dead; that would be great._

_Sure, like something like that exists Hermione.._

_This is hopeless._

In times of despair and uncertainty, Hermione Granger only knew one thing to do. And so she went to Hogwarts' library. She had to make several detours to reach her destination; most of the castle's hallways were filled with debris from the battle and she couldn't get through them.

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Upon arriving Hermione's heart plummeted and a loud moan escaped her troath. Somebody had burned down most of the library and almost all books appeared to be ruined. Cautiously she walked all the way to the back and opened the door to the restricted section, maybe it had been spared.

She was lucky, the door had held back the fire and the only proof of what had happened, was the smell of smoke that was still lingering. Allthough she was devastated with the loss of her favorite refuge, Hermione soon regained her courage and began searching through the restricted section.

_Whatever I need, if it exists, it's probably in here anyway, I don't think Dumbledore -or Snape- would have let us research ways of returning the dead. Bloody hell, I'm starting to sound like the second brother in The tales of Beedle the bard... There must be an other way to save him, I'm __not__ messing around with death. _

And so Hermione gathered every advanced charms and potions book that she could find, hoping that there would be a solution to her puzzle. Three hours later she was sitting on the library floor, practically buried in books. None of those books, however, seemed to provide her with an adequate solution for saving Professor Snape's life. Potions that required unicorn's blood, charms that needed to be accompanied by blood sacrifices or sapping another's strength. And even if they could save his life, none of them were compatible with the facts that she had gathered, he had appeared to be dead after all... It was hopeless, she was exhausted, several of the books had tried to attack or posses her and Hermione was just about an inch away of giving up.

_Right, one more shelve, I'll only browse one more and then I'm going back to the Hospital wing. _

She decided to skip a few aisles, randomly choosing one to look through. It was filled with Dark Arts books that described various curses. Allthough it seemed rather unlikely that a curse could save someone's life, she had chosen to browse that particulair aisle and so she would at least give it a look.

There was one very large book that got her attention; _Drawing close to death._ It enlisted various curses that were designed to kill your victims. Of course there was only one Killing curse,-_A_v_ada Kedavra- _so these curses were less effective, probably they were it's predecessors.Apparantly they therefore rendered a person close to death. Killing Snape was the last thing she wished to do and so Hermione decided that this also wasn't what she was looking for. Her hopes plummeted: a Time Turner just wasn't enough; nobody could reverse death and definitely not an eigtheen year old witch.

With the Dark Arts book on her lap, Hermione sat in the middle of the Restricted area of a library that once held the answer to all her questions, but now only seemed broken and battered and frustratingly incomplete. She sighed and closed her eyes, tears were running down her cheeks; she just couldn't fix this.

The image of a dying Professor Snape formed in her mind and guilt overtook her. After all this man had done, they had let him get murdered, only hours away from victory and freedom after nearly twenty years of penance, for a reason that didn't even exist.

A rustling sound coming from her lap, awoke Hermione from her thoughts. Looking down, she saw the book in her lap browsing through itself. After her initial surprise, she gathered herself and looked at the page that now lay open. After all, books in the restricted section often tended to have something akin to a mind of their own.

She was looking at an terrifyingly lifelike and animated drawing of a man lying at the feet of another man. The victim was perfectly still, his chest did not move and she assumed that he wasn't breathing anymore. The scariest part were his eyes; at first sight it looked as if he was staring intently at her, but when she examined them closer, they were completely blank as if lifeless. If she didn't know better, she'ld say she was looking at a victim of the Avada Kedavra. That, however, could not be true, since the book predated that curse. This peaked her interest.

Ten minutes later, Hermione was incredibly pleased with her discoveries. She had found a curse that just might be what she needed. It was designed to trap a person's soul forever in their body, without giving it any possibility of escaping through physical assault of said body. The body was preserved in the state in which it was at the time of casting and thus the soul could never be freed. Actually, it was a very cruel curse and Hermione was quite sure that most people would choose death over an eternity of imprisonment. Still, it matched all the prerequisites she had formulated and was the only thing she found that could do so, there really was no other option...

After studying the curse and practising the wandmovements for another fifteen minutes, Hermione went back to the Hospital wing. She needed to get Harry's cloak. How else was she supposed to get near enough to cast without anybody and especially Voldemort noticing her presence?

At first she remembered that they had been using the cloak at the Shrieking Shack that time and so she assumed that she would have to find another way to remain unnoticed. But when Hermione thoroughly analysed her plan and the implications of using a Time Turner, she realised that she would only be bringing the future cloak and that therefore she could use it after all.

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When she entered the room, Ron's heavy snoring almost made her chuckle. It was so typical for him. Especially after last nights' battle and their rather short, but passionate encounter, she considered it endearing rather than appaling. Not to mention that it proved that Harry was sound asleep; if he could sleep through that, he would not be waking the next few hours or so.

Carefully extracting the cloak from under Harry's pillow, Hermione mentally excused herself for the use of such a prized possesion without asking first. She was sure however, that he would approve of her intentions.

Cloak in one hand and Time Turner in the other, Hermione was walking briskly through Hogwarts Castle in search of a place were she could safely use the Time Turner without being noticed upon her return.

Hermione let her feet wonder to the dungeons. With most of Hogwarts' wards still down as a result of the battle, she noticed several doors and hallways that she was sure would have remained hidden otherwise. Curiously she opened one door that attracted her attention. It was rather small, but had a beautiful and detailed carving depicting the ever present Slytherin snake coiled around what seemed to be an ancient tome.

Hermione was thrilled to dicover an elegantly furbished study with rows and rows of shelves full of books along every wall.

_I didn't know Slytherin has its own library. How unfair! Why couldn't Gryffindor have one as well?_

_But the place is lovely, completely deserted and exactly what I was looking for._

Carefully drawing the invisibility cloak around her, Hermione put the Time Turner's chain around her neck and set the it to take her back to the time of the beginning of the battle. Her heart was pounding rapidly in her chest as she waited for her time travelling to complete. When the room around her came into focus again, Hermione was terrified to see that she was not alone...

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Took me quite some time to get started with this one. The holiday season probably has something to do with that. Busy little me...

A rather short chapter written mostly to answer the question of how Hermione would be able to save Snape.

The next one is going to be quite action packed, seeing as she has to make her way to Voldemort unnoticed in the middle of an epic battle.

Thanks for all the wonderful reviews. It's brilliant to know that people are actually appreciating my first steps into Potter fanfiction.

If you have any constructive comments or criticism, that is equally welcome! Just review! I love them.


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